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Seven-year-old Jon Provost getting acquainted with the famed four-footed actor on the Hollywood set of Lassie in Los Angeles on June 18, 1957. (AP Photo)

Jon Provost‘s acting career began as a toddler when he shared the stage with Hollywood legends like Jane Wyman, Grace Kelly, and Bing Crosby. Little did anyone know then, that it would be his work with a beautiful four-legged co-star that would secure his place in American television history. From the late 1950s until the mid-’60s, Provost’s character Timmy Martin and his canine companion were the pair everyone loved to watch. Thanks to them, Sunday nights became family nights, as parents and kids rallied round black and white TV sets for the popular CBS series Lassie.

Life may have been simpler then, but Timmy got himself into a jam nearly every episode. While his logical parents hammered home the rules and life lessons, it was always Timmy’s loyal dog Lassie who pushed him out of harm’s way. True, Jon Provost’s antics were all acting, but in real life, there was no denying the positive impact of his brush with the collie who famously saved him from the well.

“I did the show for seven years. I worked with three different Lassies. And the last one I worked with for five years, so he and I really bonded and grew up together,” said Provost in an interview for the iTunes podcast Whine At 9.

But their relationship was more than just playing fetch on the set. “When we were on hiatus [from filming Lassie], we would take about a month and Lassie and I would go around the United States… to promote the show. And Rudd Weatherwax [Lassie’s owner and trainer] would insist that if there was a children’s hospital in any town that we were visiting, that Lassie and I would go visit the kids. This was before there were service dogs. They didn’t even let dogs in hospitals back then, but they would let Timmy and Lassie in.”

Provost credits those early years of hospital visits with Lassie for paving his desire to work with non-profit organizations like Canine Companions for Independence, which provides trained assistance dogs to people with disabilities.

“Lassie and I would come into the (hospital) room and it would just transport these kids because they watched us every Sunday night. Me being so young, it made such a lasting impression on me, that I think it really influenced me in my later years… just to see what a service dog does for someone—how it changes their life. It’s amazing.”

With a television and film career that has spanned decades (and a detour for college and a real-estate career), Provost continues to focus on the promotion of youth, animal, and medical causes. And while he acknowledges the complexity of childhood fame, he’s quick to acknowledge the role that holds a special place in his heart. Today, Timmy’s checked shirt and jeans are housed at the Smithsonian. They hang a stone’s throw away from Archie Bunker’s chair and Fonzie’s leather jacket, proving that television icons come in all shapes and sizes. Jon Provost’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a nod to the tiny celebrity he once was, but the real star is the man who grew up to honor the legacy of CBS’ Lassie, and the underlying message of a show that touched so many families.